Lakers Rumors: Lindsey Harding Joins JJ Redick’s Staff; Was 2023-24 NBA G League COY

The Los Angeles Lakers have reportedly hired Lindsey Harding to be an assistant coach on JJ Redick’s staff, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Harding was named the 2023-24 NBA G League Coach of the Year after leading the Stockton Kings to a 24-10 record and the top overall seed in the Western Conference.

Redick and Harding were contemporaries at Duke on the men’s and women’s basketball teams and later were reunited on the Philadelphia 76ers, when Redick was a player and Harding served as a player development coach.

Her coaching career also included international stops as the head coach of South Sudan and Mexico.

As a player, Harding was the top overall pick in the 2007 WNBA draft and spent nine seasons in the league, playing for the Minnesota Lynx (2007-08), Washington Mystics (2009-10), Atlanta Dream (2011-12), Los Angeles Sparks (2013-14), New York Liberty (2016) and Phoenix Mercury (2016).

She averaged 9.8 points and four assists per game in her career.

At the college level, she was named the Naismith College Player of the Year in 2007, and the Blue Devils made her the second women’s player in school history to have her jersey retired.

On the Lakers, she will join a coaching staff that now includes a pair of former NBA head coaches in Nate McMillan and Scott Brooks, alongside former Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Lakers assistant coach, Greg St. Jean.

The Lakers have had a quiet offseason outside of hiring Redick and drafting LeBron James’ son Bronny in the second round, failing to make a major splash in either free agency or via a trade.

The Lakers were one-and-done in last year’s playoffs after surviving the Play-In Tournament for a second straight year, and the current roster doesn’t appear to be a legitimate contender in a Western Conference that also includes loaded teams like the Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves.